What Is It That Rises As “I”?

“Actions such as ‘going’ and ‘coming’ belong only to the body. And so, when one says, ‘I went, I came’, it amounts to saying that the body is ‘I’. But, can the body be said to be the consciousness ‘I’, since the body was not before it was born, is made up of the five elements, is non-existent in the state of deep sleep, and becomes a corpse when dead? Can this body which is inert like a log of wood be said to shine as ‘I-I’? Therefore, the ‘I-consciousness’ which at first arises in respect of the body is referred to variously as self-conceit (Tarbodham), egoity (Ahaṅkāra), nescience (Avidyā), Māyā, impurity (Mala), and individual soul (Jīva). Can we remain without enquiring into this? Is it not for our redemption through enquiry that all the scriptures declare that the destruction of ‘self-conceit’ is release (Mukti)? Therefore, making the corpse-body remain as a corpse, and not even uttering the word ‘I’, one should enquire keenly thus: “Now, what is it that rises as ‘I’?” Then, there would shine in the Heart a kind of wordless illumination of the form ‘I-I’. That is, there would shine of its own accord the pure consciousness which is unlimited and one, the limited and the many thoughts having disappeared. If one remains quiescent without abandoning that (experience), the egoity, the individual sense, of the form ‘I am the body’ will be totally destroyed, and at the end the final thought, viz., the ‘I-form’ also will be quenched like the fire that burns camphor. The great sages and scriptures declare that this alone is release.”

~ Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

• Osborne, Arthur (1997). The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi. Red Wheel Weiser